The ruling CPI(M) on Wednesday announced names of 83 candidates it is fielding for the April 6 election to the Kerala Legislative Assembly. The party has chosen not to field five Ministers in the Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet and 33 of its sitting MLAs.

The party which has been campaigning for the empowerment of women has 12 women candidates in the list out of which eight are new faces. The new candidates include R Bindu (wife of party secretary Vijayaraghavan) and seven others.

Though the party cadre staged demonstrations at Ponnani demanding TM Siddick be fielded as candidate, the CPI(M) leadership declared that Nandakumar, a party activist more known for backroom manoeuvering would be contesting from the constituency. The list includes Mohammed Riyaz, the son-in-law of Vijayan.

The high-profile Finance Minister Thomas Issac and PWD Minister G Suddharan are being rested along with three other Ministers. One of the party insiders said Issac is being groomed by the party for the 2024 Lok Sabha election so that he could be projected as the country’s Finance Minister in the eventuality of the CPI(M) joining the Government to be formed at the Centre.

MB Rajesh, who lost the Lok Sabha election from Oalakkadu in 2019 has been brought back as an Assembly candidate. The main attraction is that the party has fielded the young veteran K Radhakrishnan, former Speaker, as a candidate. Radhakrishnan, once tipped to be the chief ministerial candidate, had earned respectability from all parties for the manner in which he conducted the proceedings of the House. The CPI(M) did not field him for the 2016 Assembly election.

Names of candidates from Mancheshwaram and Devikulam would be announced later, according to Vijayaraghavan.